Traces of Time and Space
by ViaLethe
Summary: River convinces everyone to do a bit of stargazing, and see things from different perspectives.  Genfic.


Disclaimer: Words are mine, world ain't.

Timeline: Post-BDM

a/n: Off the prompt - _Firefly, any or all, stargazing planetside, because sometimes it's nice to see the Black from another angle.  
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><p><em>Traces of Time and Space<br>_

River knows that on this particular far-flung bit of moon, daylight doesn't linger any more than people generally do; _twilight_ means a period of scant minutes, the darkness rushing down to blanket the ship's silver hull, gone dull with a lack of light to reflect, and the figures of her crew, spread out on the ground nearby.

Jayne stirs, out of his element and nervous with it, one hand hovering over his gun. "Why the hell'd we all agree to layin' out here like a bunch of gorram fools again?"

"Cause River promised it'd be pretty," Kaylee says, flopping back on the hard-packed dirt next to Simon as though it held all the comfort of her hammock. "And for once we ain't gotta go rushin' off cause Cap'n went'n got under somebody's skin."

There's a sudden stir in the air to River's left, as Mal jerks upright at this accusation. "Hey! Why's it always my fault? I ain't the only one going around stirrin' folk up. Right? Zoe?"

"Don't look at me, sir. Wasn't me who started that barfight back on Boros on account of _Serenity_ getting called a piece of _go se_."

It's grown too dark now for River to see the face Mal's making at her, but she's never needed sight for that anyhow, knows perfectly well he's smirking in her direction, and sticks out her tongue at him in return; it's not as though he's likely to see her, she thinks, just before he proves her wrong – his eyes are better than she thought.

"Ah, no, that was _River_, as I recall. I was just backin' up my crew, seeing as how that's what a Captain's for and all."

A quiet rustle of fabric accompanied by an alluring scent, patchouli and oranges, marks Inara's position in the dark. "No, surely a fine upstanding gentleman like yourself would only come by those bloodied knuckles in the most honorable of ways."

"You can think of somethin' more honorable than defending my crew and my ship, I'd like to hear it."

From River's other side, long fingers brush her foot as her brother searches for her position; still and always, he needs the reassurance of knowing her whereabouts. "What fight? River, you never told me that."

"He deserved it. _Serenity_ won't stand for insults. Now hush, or you'll miss the spectacle." She shifts her foot away, leaning back on her elbows and turning her face to the sky, already making itself a tapestry of light above them. "The stars speak to us. Make pictures and maps. Some of them are already dead, don't exist anymore except in the memory of light. But they still speak." As she talks, the mutter of the crew's individual conversations dies, the starlight laying quiet over them all.

Eventually, Kaylee's voice breaks the silence, small and breathless. "Wow. That's...that's a lotta stars. Thought we could see 'em all, bein' up in _Serenity_, but...ain't quite like this."

"It's the proper time in this moon's rotation," River says. "The planets align to block the light of the system's various suns with a minimum of reflection."

"Forgot just how pretty it can get, planetside," says Zoe, and watching her face bathed in starlight, clear enough to see by now, River thinks she understands one more reason why Wash loved the stars so.

"Happy we stayed, Captain?" she murmurs, tipping her head further back to see him, hair trailing in the dust beneath her.

"Yeah, albatross," he answers, eyes fixed on the sky, the blending of black and bright and the hazy fog between, spreading its tendrils through the canvas of the universe. "It's no bad thing to be lookin' from a different angle, now and again."

She smiles, and basks in the starlight, grounded but free in the possibility and beauty of the sky, the dark bulk of the ship, and the close warmth of her crew, until Jayne's voice ends the quiet.

"Hey, anybody else think those stars there look like Vera?"


End file.
